R2D2 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Job Time: - 4-5 hours. Symptoms of faulty CCV: - Engine drinking oil (as much as half a litre/month is typical). - Oil residue in the inlet manifold (remove your DISA valve to check). This is a job that most people who live in a cold/ish climate and own a 7+ year old e46 probably need doing, even if they dont realise it. The CCV (crankcase ventilation) system is designed to recirculate oil vapours from the camshaft housing down into an oil seperating valve so that the oil can be seperated and recycled down into the sump (via the dipstick) and the other vapours are sent to the inlet manifold and exhausted. BMW have acknowledged that the CCV is a weak point on their M54 engines as they get condensation buildup during cold weather which mixes with the recirculated oil vapours and clogs the oil seperation valve itself. This then prevents the oil from being drained down into the sump, and instead gets sucked up into the intake manifold where the oil gets burnt during combustion, and comes out of the exhaust. Youll then end up with a gunked up valve as mine was: This is the main culprit behind so many people complaining that their 6-pot M54 engines drink a lot of oil. Most just dont bother replacing the valve, just top their oil up when needed. Well id had enough of forking out for oil top ups so decided to finally get on with sorting out the cause. What you'll need - T-40, T-25 Torx bits - 6mm, 10mm, & 13mm sockets & Ratchet - Various length Ratchet Extension bars - Needle nose pliers - Small Mirror - Torch - Set of cross and flat headed screwdrivers - Magnetic pick up tool (for those screws that youll drop down onto the skid plate!) - Stanley Knife Tips - Label all the connectors you remove with masking tape! - Have a magnet pick up tool at the ready in case you drop any screws down onto the skid plate - Give yourself plenty of time to do the job - Use some washing up liquid or silicon grease to get the new hoses on if youre struggling with them Parts There are 2 different parts lists that are available to do the job. Theres the standard 'warm climate' parts, and a more expensive 'cold climate' setup. The cold climate parts are foam insulated to reduce the amount of condensation build up in the ventilation system. Its up to you which version you buy, but the cold climate one is more expensive and the valve is much more of a pig to fit due to its larger size, so be warned! The parts list are as follows (prices as of Nov 2012): Warm Climate Parts 11617501566 Oil seperating valve - - £40 11611432559 Vent pipe - £17.52 11617504535 Connecting line - £24.30 11157532649 Vent Hose - £11.66 11617504536 Return Pipe - £25.43 11431740045 Dip Stick O-rings - £2.10 13547504729 Throttle Body Gasket - £6.65 --------- £127.66 Cold Climate Parts 11617533400 Oil seperating valve (insulated) - £45.70 11617533398 Vent Pipe (insulated) - £19.06 11617533399 Connecting line (insulated) - £24.30 11157532629 Vent hose (insulated) - £11.66 11617504536 Return Pipe - £25.43 11431740045 Dip Stick O-rings - £2.10 13547504729 Throttle Body Gasket - £6.65 --------- £134.90 Procedure Battery Firstly, unhook your battery. Unplugging sensors during the ccv replacement with your car powered up could throw errors with your ecu, so just to be safe remove the earth (black) connection on your battery. Its located under the black tray on the right hand side of your boot. Pull the upright carpet out of the way and lift up the black plastic tray to access it (being careful not to pull on the green fuel cap release in doing so). A 10mm socket is all youll need to loosen the connection and lift it off. Air intake filter and boots The next job is to remove your air intake components. This comprises of the air filter housing, MAF and intake boots. Firstly, remove the 3 expanding clips on the intake housing using a flat headed screwdriver, and then the 2 hex bolts that are holding the air filter housing to the engine bay. Now loosen the jubilee clip and unclip the MAF connector (by pinching and pulling on the plug)... The whole intake unit should now lift out exposing the upper and lower intake boots. The upper one comes out easily by pulling ouy the vacuum hose at the top (you may need a screwdriver to prise this out) and then loosening the jubilee clip and pulling it out. To remove the lower one though, youll firstly have to remove your DISA valve, which is held in place by 2 T-40 hex bolts. Once youve removed them, just unplug the DISA connector, and twist and pull on the valve and it will come out as one complete unit: With the DISA valve out you can now remove the lower intake boot by loosening the jubilee clips that tie it to the ICV (the smaller hose on the lower intake boot) and the throttle body (the larger one). It can take a bit of tugging but the lower boot will eventually pull off, exposing the throttle body. Throttle Body, Conduit Box & Purge Valve The last stage before you can actually see the CCV is to remove the throttle body that youve now exposed, and also the conduit box which houses various looms. To do this, firstly unbolt the 3 10mm nuts that are securing the conduit box. There are two easy ones to see in the middle and on the left, but the third is out of sight on the right hand side located next to the bottom right hand throttle body bolt (use a mirror to locate it if youre having trouble). Once you have all 3 nuts off, just move the conduit box out of the way. Next remove the throttle body 4 10mm hex bolts which secure the throttle body. Its hard to see the bottom two in the picture below but theyre in the same position vertically as the upper ones. The bolts are quite long so dont be surprised when they just keep on unscrewing! With the bolts out, unplug the throttle body connector and pull on the TB and it should easily slide out and can be completely removed with a bit of twisting and pulling. Now its just a case of unplugging and unhooking the purge valve to the left hand side of where the conduit box was. At this stage it is also a good idea to take out the retaining bolt on the dipstick housing so that the whole dipstick assembly can be moved out of the way. The retaining bolt is located as shown here: This will now completely expose the oil seperator valve which will now be removed. CCV (Oil seperator valve & hoses) With everything now out of the way you should now be able to see the oil seperator under the inlet manifold. Its now time to start unclipping all the hoses in the ccv system so that the valve can be completely removed. To access the top hoses (connecting hose & return pipe), youll need to firstly take off your micro filter assembly (A) and fuel rail cover (B ), as shown here: The micro filter assembly is removed by turning the 3 sprung clips through 90 degrees until they pop up. Its cover can then be removed, revealing the filter itself. Take out the filter and then unclip the enclosure in front of it (C ) and pull out the 12V cable in black conduit. By now removing the 4 T40 torx screws that are holding the housing in place you will be able to pull the whole assembly out. You can now access the two hex bolts (under the plastic covers) that hold the fuel rail cover in place. Unscrew these and pull off the cover. With the cover off you can now access and remove the connecting hose and return pipe. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to pinch and pull them off where needed, dont worry if they snap, theyll probably be very brittle and youll be replacing them anyway. The final hose to remove at the top is the one thats attached to the valve cover. Just pinch and pull this as with the others. With this final top hose removed, you can now unscrew and remove the valve itself (D below). It is held on by 2 x T25 torx screws as shown by the arrows. In the diagram below, hoses (B ) and (C ) should be detached as per the previous step but its now totally up to you how you remove the valve itself, some prefer to cut hoses (B ) and (C ) at the valve end so that the seperator can just be pulled out, some prefer to do some wiggling about and keep them intact. Either way youll need to remove the 2 torx screws. With the oil seperator out from underneath the intake manifold its just a case of removing the drain hose (A) which is attached to a nipple on the dipstick at the other end. I found that by far the easiest thing to do was to slit the hose at the dipstick end with a stanley knife and pull it off. The oil seperator valve can now be completely removed from the engine bay ready for the new one to be fitted. Preperation & Reassembly of new parts Before reassembling the new parts back in place, there are a few steps that need to be taken. Firstly, the nipple on the dipstick needs to be checked to see if its clear of gunk, otherwise the new oil seperator will just get clogged up again. The best way to do this is to remove the distick completely. To do this, take out the dipstick (which you use to check your oil levels) and then with the retaining bolt having been removed earlier the dipstick tube will completely lift out of the sump with a bit of a wiggle: Once out, check the nipple that the drain back hose from the oil seperator connects to, and make sure its clear of gunk. If its clogged up you can use a bicycle pump or an air line to clear it as much as possible. While the dipstick housing is out, its also a good time to replace the larger dipstick o-ring. This can be found either around the bottom of the dipstick housing, or in the hole in the sump where the dipstick tube pulled out from. With that part complete, fit the new drain hose to the dipstick nipple ready to connect to the new valve and replace the dipstick housing, but dont re-secure the dipstick retaining bolt just yet. Its now time to fit the new valve and hoses. This is by far the most awkward part of the job so be prepared for a few scraped knuckles. I found that the best way to re-fit was to attach the connecting hose (C ) first (mine was a push and twist fit) and then feed the hose up through the gap in the inlet manifold where you pulled the old one from and get the oil seperator into position at the same time. It takes a lot of patience and twisting as the throttle body housing gets in the way, but dont fret it does go in there eventually. Once in place, secure the valve back in place with the 2 torx screws, and then feed the valve cover hose (B ) down through the gap next to the oil filter housing and connect it to the ccv valve. The valve cover hose (B ) takes a little bit of bending but its a push and click type rather than the twist fit, so its a bit easier than the last one. Now fit the final hose which you secured to the dipstick nipple earlier, it goes on the bottom of the new oil sperator and should be a push and click type again. Youre now ready to do the rest of the reassembly, which i did in this order... - Refit and reconnect the purge valve - Refit and reconnect the throttle body & replace gasket with the new one youve bought - Refit the conduit box - Refit and reconnect the DISA valve - Resecure the dipstick housing on its bracket - Refit lower intake boot - Refit upper intake boot & reattach vacuum hose - Refit air intake enclosure/air box & plug MAF back in - Refit fuel rail cover and micro filter assembly - Reconnect battery ....And youre done!! Hopefully you find this guide useful and it cures your oil drinking problems with your engine. I take no responsibility for anything going wrong when you follow the above, its just what i did step by step, and it all worked out for me. If you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask. Lastly there are some fantastic how-to videos on youtube by Bavarianauto. I pretty much followed what he did in them and it was very handy seeing everything done in real time. I highly recommend watching them before taking this job on. I can only post the first part for some reason, but there are links to parts 2 and 3 at the end of the video: [media=] Acknowledgments I pretty much nicked some of the pictures from other websites to write this guide as i didnt take any pictures at the time of doing mine, so thanks to DetailingWorld, Bavarianauto and BMW fanatics for those. MICK 330, autosri, towser13 and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2D2 Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Sorry mods, just realised ive posted this in the wrong section. Can you please move to the E46 DIY Guides section and delete this reply. Thanks Fitz2282 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mit Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Much needed DIY - awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngy Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 great guide... thanks for posting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Syxx Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 good DIY mate oil consumption improved? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Topic Moved - good work on the DIY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2D2 Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 good DIY mate oil consumption improved? Too early to say yet I only did it this weekend, I'll know in a few weeks probably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim27 Posted December 6, 2012 Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 Fantastic DIY guide - kudos matey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan 24v Posted December 27, 2012 Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 Great guide mate However, you should disconnect the +ve terminal on the battery to prevent the -ve cable becoming live and shorting out on the chassis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Turko Posted December 27, 2012 Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 Awesome. I've had the parts sat in my garage for nearly a year. I'll get on it using this. Thanks for taking the time to do the write up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Mark Posted December 27, 2012 Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 I was super busy at work when mine went big style, wimped out and paid the nearest decent specialist £275 to do the job which I don't think was too bad all things considered, that was with new plugs as well actually. Nice guide, will have a go myself next time Deestylez. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterH Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Good DIY but looking at that creamy gunk, it's not only in the CCV... Did you change the oil too becuse it looks like it needs it badly!... otherwise the new one will just end up like the last... When I replaced mine, it improved oil consumption from 1ltr per 500miles to 1ltr per 2000 miles plus! So it did help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deestylez. Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 I was super busy at work when mine went big style, wimped out and paid the nearest decent specialist £275 to do the job which I don't think was too bad all things considered, that was with new plugs as well actually. Nice guide, will have a go myself next time When i had my last service at specialist, he recommended i had it done asap, and charged me 270 inc vat, been putting it off but im going to book it in in the next week or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Mark Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 Walk away from any supposed specialist who says the inlet manifold has to come off btw, my local so called specialist was actually rude to me when I said it did not, even when I showed him video evidence !! They are near RAF Cranwell btw !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deestylez. Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) Ohh il bear that in mind... He mentioned to me that it effects performance of the engine, cant remember the rest of what he said, Its B&R BMW specialits, based in Cardiff, South Wales My fathers a beemer head and hes been going to the same guy for years (they're good freinds) so i trust him with what he says but its alot of money, for something that doesnt feel like its gunna make much of different in driving Edited December 29, 2012 by Deestylez-Darius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Mark Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 It needs doing if it needs doing, eventually it will get like mine did and start farting huge clouds of smoke in gigantic belches...day to day driving there is no performance benefits, apart from the engine running smoother as it is not burning oil !! All I am saying is that you won't put your foot down and go OMG this is fast as &*(^%$% after you have it done, but you will spend a lot less money on oil and you wont constantly see the vile stuff puffing from your tips on idle Deestylez. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman68 Posted January 2, 2013 Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 This is the best CCV diy guide I've seen to date, so respect and top job well done! Looks like a pita job glad my m54 doesn't need this system anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz 330 Cs Posted January 2, 2013 Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 Yes a great write up Buddy, well done. I need to do mine sometime so ill have a good read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2D2 Posted January 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2013 Great guide mate However, you should disconnect the +ve terminal on the battery to prevent the -ve cable becoming live and shorting out on the chassis The -ve rail cant touch the +ve rail, its too far away from anything sat at 12V, but yeah i guess it cant hurt to quickly whip the 12v terminal off as well. Good DIY but looking at that creamy gunk, it's not only in the CCV... Did you change the oil too becuse it looks like it needs it badly!... otherwise the new one will just end up like the last... Id changed my oil the week before and it was fine. The gunk is just 11 years of built up oil vapours. There was slight build up in my cam housing when i replaced the valve cover a few months ago as well, its perfectly normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan 24v Posted January 7, 2013 Report Share Posted January 7, 2013 You only need to remove the +ve mate, the -ve can stay on then. It just means the cable isnt live. No doubt yours would be fine, its just one of those things I've always had drummed into me - working on aircraft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2D2 Posted January 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2013 With the -ve terminal disconnected the +ve rail isn't 'live' any more anyway as it has no ground reference. You could literally grab hold of the 12v terminal and you'd be fine. Understand where you're coming from though, it's a good habit to get into. Stan 24v 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan 24v Posted January 8, 2013 Report Share Posted January 8, 2013 No, but the minute it touches bare metal it'll fire 12v straight through it. Granted that's not a lot, but enough to ruin your plans potentially. Now try that with 28vdc and you get my drift Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2D2 Posted January 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2013 No, but the minute it touches bare metal it'll fire 12v straight through it. Granted that's not a lot, but enough to ruin your plans potentially. Now try that with 28vdc and you get my drift Lol, no it wont. The chassis ground reference connection is removed when you disconnect the -ve terminal. Current will only flow from +ve terminal to -ve terminal on the battery and by removing the -ve connection the 'bare metal' its just essentially a floating point and the current coming from the +ve terminal has no interest in flowing through it. Stan 24v 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan 24v Posted January 8, 2013 Report Share Posted January 8, 2013 Fair point, slightly different for us I suppose as we always earth the aircraft, thus creating an earthed chassis. Nice little lesson there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
